Biographical Note:

The Most Reverend William Aloysius Scully (August 6, 1894-January 5, 1969), D.D., served as the sixth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany from 1954 until his death. Due to illness he delegated the active administration of the diocese to an auxiliary bishop in 1966. He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Albany on August 21, 1945, receiving his episcopal consecration on the following October 24 from Bishop Edmund Gibbons, and served as pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Troy, N.Y., for nine years.

Scope and Content Note:

This collection of photographs includes views of other church officials, the interior of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, N.Y., and the coats of arms of Bishop Scully and of the Albany Diocese. Included for each photograph is text that probably was used as a cutline for the photograph as well as a four-page typed history entitled: “The Catholic Church in Albany.” Since seven of the photos are identified by pencil or stamp with the word “Evangelist,” they possibly were used in the diocesan newspaper, The Evangelist.

List of Photographs

Folder

Description

1

Portrait of a seated William A. Scully from the waist up

2

Bishop Scully blessing the children at St. Mary's Church, Troy, N.Y. The children are being held by adults kneeling at the altar rail for the blessing. Priests stand on either side of the bishop.

3

Bishop Scully awarding the Ad Altare Dei medal to a kneeling Boy Scout at the annual Boy Scout demonstration in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Albany, N.Y., June 13, 1948. The bishop is assisted by a priest standing beside him.

4

Bishop Scully, standing fourth from the left, and five Troy priests stand behind four women seated at a dinner table at the Home for the Aged, Troy, N.Y. on St. Joseph's Day, on which it is customary for clergy to serve old people and distribute small gifts. The home is conducted by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

5

Bishop Scully, standing fourth from the left, on the occasion of his episcopal
consecration at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, on October 24, 1945. Standing with him are Francis J. Spellman, Cardinal Archbishop of New York; Bishop Thomas E. Molloy of Brooklyn; Bishop (of Albany Edmund F.?) Gibbons; and Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart, President of the Catholic University of America.

6

An interior view of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany during a mass. Viewed from rear choir loft. Completed in 1852, the cathedral is the mother church of the Albany Catholic Diocese and served as the episcopal church for Bishop Scully.

7

The coat of arms of the Albany Catholic Diocese, depicting a beaver holding an erect crozier; a crescent is in the upper-right-hand corner of the shield.

8

The coat of arms of Bishop Scully, “Tibi Servire Regnare” [To Serve Thee Is to Reign], comprising two coats impaled. The left panel is the coat of arms of the see of Albany. The other is based on the coat of arms of one of the Irish Scully families and consists of a sable chevron between three green trefoils. "WFJRyan" inscribed on lower-right-corner of the drawing.

9

Cutlines for photographs and four-page typed history entitled “The Catholic Church in Albany.”